Pharmacological studies and clinical practices have indicated that Radix Astragali, a dried root of Astragalusmembranaceus possesses a lot of biological activities, including antioxidant, hepatoprotective, anti-diabetic, tonic, diuretic,antimicrobial, antiviral, and immunological activities. These biological activities approved by the modern pharmacologicalstudies are mainly due to the constituents of Astragalus membranaceus including polysaccharides, saponins, flavonoids,amino acids, and trace elements. In resent, the main constituents in the root part showing a lot of biological activities hasbeen isolated also from the aboveground parts such as leaves and sprouts in our laboratory. However, the safety evaluationfor the aboveground parts of Astragalus membranaceus should be checked before expanding their application as one of food.In the study, a 90-day rat oral gavage study has been conducted with the extracts from Astragalus membranaceus-above-ground parts at doses of 1000, 3000, and 5000㎎/㎏/day. The following endpoints were evaluated: clinical observations, bodyweight, gross and microscopic pathology, clinical chemistry, and hematology. Based on the analysis of these endpoints, it wasestimated that NOEL (no observed effect level) for male rats and NOAEL (no observed adverse effect level) for female ratsare 5000㎎/㎏/day of the water-extracts from Astragalus membranaceus-aboveground parts.

This study was investigated to evaluate germination rate of Astragalus membranaceus B. in Korea as affectedby storage temperature, germination temperature and storage period of seed. The highest germination rate was obtainedfrom condition of 25℃ in germination temperature. Seeds were stored at −20℃ and 5℃ for 8 weeks has showed higher ger-mination rate than one at room temperatures. The germination rates showed significantly difference by harvested year of2010, 2011 and 2012. The seed of A. membranaceus in harvested year of 2011 and 2012 had germinated well. On the otherhand, seeds in harvested year of 2010 were not nearly germinated. Consequently, the longer storage period after seed har-vest lower germination rate and seed vigor as well.

This study was performed to determine the antimelanogenic effect and tyrosinase inhibitory activities of anthocyanin rich fraction (AN-SLP) from Liriope platyphylla Wang et Tang seeds. Anthocyanins isolated from L. platyphylla seeds revealed the presence of four major anthocyanin components, which were tentatively identified as delphinidin-3-Oglucoside, delphinidin-3-O-rutinoside, petunidin-3-O-rutinoside, and malvidin-3-O-rutinoside using semipreparative HPLC, 1H-NMR, 13C NMR, FAB-MS and LC/ES-MS. The inhibitory effect of AN-SLP on tyrosinase activity was studied using in vitro (against mushroom tyrosinase) and ex vivo (against B16 melanoma cell tyrosinase) models. Cellular tyrosinase activity was decreased by AN-SLP treatment in B 16 melanoma cells through dose dependent manner, but AN-SLP did not inhibit mushroom tyrosinase and L-DOPA oxidation directly. AN-SLP showed melanin inhibition by 53.2% at 50 μg/ml which was 0.7 times more efficient than the antimelanogenic effect of commercial arbutin and kojic acid (36.5%) also did not show cell toxicity. Additionally, AN-SLP inhibited the activity of α-glucosidase and the glycosylation of tyrosinase in melanoma cell. The resulting unsaturated glycosylation of tyrosinase makes it unstable and disturb correct transportation. From theses results, we conclude that AN-SLP could be used as anti-melanogenic agent for skin whitening.

This study was carried out to compare the characteristics of seed germination and the first stage of growth in Cynanchum wilfordii (Maxim.) by different light conditions such ass fluorescent light, dark and light emitting diode (LED). There was not much difference from the germination rate of C. wilfordii (Maxim.) in different light conditions for 10 days. The highest of germination rate occurred over 91.11 percentage by LED red condition at 26℃. Also mean germination velocity and promptness index were represented the highest results of 2.3 ea/day and 52.67 under red light, respectively. But mean germination time under both LED red and blue light was represented low data that it takes over three days for germinating of seed. Even though handling both LED red and blue lights, the germination uniformity was not constant. These results may help our understanding of variations in germination characteristics for C. wilfordii (Maxim.) seeds treated under different light conditions.